Well, great to see you this morning, folks.
Why don't you, if you've got your Bibles there, why don't you turn to Colossians chapter 1.
This is where we're going to be over the next little while.
We're going to look at chapters 1 and 2 pre-Christmas.
Can you believe that Christmas is even a thought in our heads?
It's amazing, isn't it?
Pre-Christmas, and then we're going to look at chapters 3 and 4 after Christmas.
And it's a letter that has got so much to teach us about who our God is.
And it's my prayer that as we go through it together that we'll get a bigger sense of who he is
and what he's done for us and how glorious he is.
And that what we just sung there would not just be kind of rhetoric,
that it would be so true in our lives.
So I want to honor you with my whole life.
So why don't you turn to Colossians chapter 1 and let's still our hearts and pray together.
And let's ask that God would be with us now as we turn to his word.
Psalm 119.
The psalmist writes,
Your word, Lord, is a lamp for my feet and it's a light for my path.
Father, thank you so much for your precious word.
Think of what we read in Isaiah there, that it's a word that you, through which, bring life.
And it's a word through which you accomplish your purposes.
And so, Father, we ask that your word would do its work in our hearts this morning.
And that you would transform us more into the people that you have called us to be.
And that your spirit would come and he would show us wondrous things in your word.
Wondrous things in your law.
And that he would make us more in love with your son, Jesus Christ.
In whose name we pray.
Amen.
So, I felt the world was just, there was just too much purpose.
Too much logic.
It was too beautiful to happen by accident.
There has to be somebody bigger than you.
And bigger than me.
Guys, can you click this on?
I don't know what's going on with that.
Just click it on.
These are the words of Gene Kernan, who flew to the moon on Apollo 17.
And what he's describing is what the experts call the overview effect.
I don't know if you've ever heard of the overview effect.
But apparently what happens a lot when astronauts go into space.
And it's the feeling of awe that you get when you encounter the bigness of something.
And how that encounter changes you.
And after that encounter, you're not the same.
It's called the overview effect.
And I guess I just want to say right at the start, as we journey into this letter,
as we step into this book of Colossians,
my prayer is that each of us would leave it with the overview effect.
So, here's the question that God is going to ask us as he speaks to us through his word.
And as we journey through this letter to the Colossians.
And here it is.
How big is your view of Jesus?
So, I was going to ask us as a community, how big is our view of Jesus?
But let me put it personally to you this morning.
How big is your view of Jesus?
Is he a Sunday school Jesus?
Is he meek and mild?
Is he unoffensive?
Does he make a little appearance at Christmas and Easter?
And if we're honest, we kind of prefer the Christmas Jesus.
And he's got very little relevance to my life.
Is that your view of Jesus this morning?
Is he the lucky charm Jesus?
Is he in, I'd rather have him on my side than not on my side?
And if honest, he should be grateful that I've picked him for my team and not the Dalai Lama.
Is that your view of Jesus?
Is he the 999 Jesus?
Is he in, I'll phone him up when I've got an emergency in my life and I need some religious input.
And I fully expect him to be there to answer my call when I call him.
Is he the role model Jesus?
Is he up there with the other good teachers in life who have got decent things to say about life that I can kind of cherry pick and I can use to help me navigate my way through this thing that I call life, that we call life.
Friends, how big is your view of Jesus?
Whoever you are here this morning, whatever's going on in your heart, let me ask you, how big is your view of Jesus?
Because this letter to the Colossians is going to radically stretch the contours of our understanding because it's going to present us with the real Jesus.
And the real Jesus is so much bigger than we think he is.
A Jesus who is master of history.
A Jesus who is Lord over every area of our existence.
A Jesus who is the sustainer of the stars and the planets.
Jesus who is the giver of every breath that we take.
A Jesus who is sovereign over every single government and political power.
A Jesus who is sufficient for every single area of our lives.
And a Jesus who is a wonderful saviour and a lover of souls.
This is the Jesus that Paul is going to present us with in Colossians.
So how big is your view of Jesus?
How big is he in your mind?
Because I guess the answer to that question, it really makes a difference, does it, in everyday life?
It really makes a difference.
It matters when disaster strikes.
When you get the news from the hospital.
When you get those results.
And it's not the results that you were hoping would come.
It matters when plans in your life fall through, doesn't it?
When that P45 comes through the door and life is all of a sudden up in the air.
When you didn't get that graduate job from university that you really, really wanted.
It matters when persecution comes in life.
I can make a little prediction for the future.
When things are going to get really, really tough to stand for this king.
It really matters who we think he is.
It matters when things go well in life, doesn't it?
You know that life itself, everything that we have, is a gift from this glorious Jesus.
So friends, let me ask you, how big is your view of Jesus?
How big is he?
It was A.W. Tozer, who was a theologian back in the day, who famously said,
that which comes to our minds when we first think about God is the most important thing about us.
What do you think of when you think of Jesus?
And it's my prayer that as we journey through this letter over the next weeks and months,
with the help of the Holy Spirit, that we would get a Colossian-sized view of Jesus.
Who he is, what he's done, what he's doing, who we are in him,
and that that would radically transform our individual and our corporate lives together as his people,
as we respond to who he is, as we pledge ourselves to live for his glory alone,
as we live by his word alone, and as we seek to make him known in our world.
This is Colossians, okay?
Are you excited as we get into this?
It's thrilled my heart, this book, as I've journeyed through it over the last couple of months,
but more than that, even over the last couple of years,
because this is one of the most Christ-saturated books in the New Testament,
in the whole Bible, in fact.
Wonderful.
Now, as we get into this letter this morning, okay,
let me just give you three Ps by way of background.
I like to alliterate.
You've probably picked that one up.
Three Ps as we get into Colossians.
Here's the first P.
Look, I don't even know what's going on here.
Paul.
Here's the first P.
Paul.
The man whose life has been turned upside down by Jesus Christ.
The man who once in his life was a persecutor of the church.
He encounters Jesus, and now he's a preacher about Jesus.
Quite incredible, isn't it?
Incredible the difference that Jesus has made in Paul's life.
And what Paul has been doing is he's been traveling around the east side of the Med,
as we would know it, and he's been teaching people about Jesus.
And on his travels, if we go to the next slide, he spent a good chunk of time in the city of Ephesus,
which is a city which is about 100 miles west of Colossae,
and that we read about in Acts 19.
If you want to go home in your own time and check that out.
And after some time in Ephesus,
a while later, Paul finds himself under house arrest in Rome.
And it's from Rome that Paul writes this letter to the church in Colossae.
Now get your head around this one, okay?
Amazingly, Paul has never met the people that he's writing to.
He's never met them.
Which raises the question, doesn't it?
Why would he bother writing a letter to them?
Well, here's the second P.
It's the planter.
Because when Paul was preaching in Ephesus,
it seems likely that a man called Epaphras,
who we'll come on to see a little later this morning,
he hears Paul's message about the risen Jesus,
and God opens his heart, and he becomes a Christian.
But the thing about Epaphras is he's not an Ephesus boy,
he's a Colossae boy.
So he goes back, what seems likely he goes back to his hometown,
and so good is this news that he just goes around telling people about Jesus.
I love that.
Do you know what?
Just tells people about Jesus.
So true in life, isn't it?
That nobody needs to tell us to talk about the things that really excite us.
Like, nobody taught me how to love Adrianian's football club, okay?
Nobody sent me on a course.
Nobody taught me how to tell people about them.
Nobody needs to remind me to check the score on Saturday.
No one needs to encourage me to wear the badge in public.
No one needs to tell me to tell people when they win,
which is why he didn't hear from me yesterday, okay?
But it's true in life, isn't it, that nobody needs to tell us
to tell the things that excite us.
This is Epaphras.
He's gone to his hometown,
and he's told them about the God who has saved him and transformed him,
and how he's done that through his son, Jesus Christ.
Because this news about Jesus is simply incredible.
And what seems to have happened is that the people who have heard in Colossae
about Jesus through Epaphras,
some of them have become Christians too.
And God has birthed this thing that I like to call Colossae Evangelical Church.
There it is on the map.
This little group of Christians meeting together
who've had their lives transformed by Jesus Christ.
And on the whole, as you read this letter,
you get the sense that things are going really well.
They are really going at it in their faith.
But, and here's the third P,
there's a problem.
And so dangerous is this problem to the very life of this church
that it's prompted Epaphras to travel all the way from Colossae
to find Paul in Rome to ask him for help.
Now that is a thousand mile plus trip
in the first century.
No easy jet direct flight.
Yeah?
No cross country train.
I don't know how he's got there,
but he's got there in the first century.
Now think about it.
How much does he really love these fellow brothers and sisters in this church?
To go all that way to find Paul.
And how concerned is he about their spiritual lives?
About Christ Jesus being the center of this church
and then pursuing him.
That he's gone all the way to find Paul so that he can help them.
Why has he done this?
Because certain people in the vicinity of this church
are promoting teachings
that are distracting from
and decentralizing Jesus.
Now it's hard to nail it down exactly.
It's most likely a mixture of Jewish teachings
and pagan cult teachings
that are distracting from Jesus.
But the crux of it is that
while Jesus is a good start in life,
that there's more to experience
and there's more to know beyond him.
And the danger is if that is swallowed,
then Jesus moves from being a big deal
at the center of their lives
to a small deal at the periphery.
And so the thrust of this letter is
keep going with Jesus.
Have him blow your minds.
Why would you move on for him?
We've got everything that we need in him.
Let me just show you a few of these in the letter
to show you how this works.
Maybe just put them up on the screen.
If you look at 123,
Paul writes,
if you continue in your faith,
established and firm
and do not move from the hope
held out in the gospel,
keep going with Jesus.
2.6
Which I think is the real heart of this letter.
So then,
just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord,
continue to live your lives in him,
rooted,
which is where we got the idea for this series from,
rooted and built up in him.
Keep going with Jesus.
Don't take your eyes off him.
Fix your eyes on him.
Set your hearts on him.
Let a big vision of him
and who he is
dominate your horizons
and make it your life ambition
to get to know him better.
Because we have a big Jesus.
One who is so much bigger
than we think he is.
So Paul says,
keep going for him.
Keep your eyes on him.
And in verses this morning,
Paul wants these Colossian Christians
who he knows are perhaps confused
by the stuff that they're hearing.
he wants them to know two things.
Okay, here's the first one.
He wants them to know
that they are the real deal.
So writing to people,
remember,
he's never met.
Verse 3,
we always thank God,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
when we pray for you.
So Paul is praying, isn't he?
He's praying,
he's thrilled
when he hears about these Christians,
as he hears Epaphras speak
about what God has done.
He's absolutely thrilled.
And his heart
is filled with thankfulness
as he hears
how God's transforming grace
has been at work in their lives.
Have you ever felt that?
As you've heard about
how God has been at work
in someone's life.
You're just thrilled.
Right?
We had a wonderful time together
last Sunday,
did we not?
Absolutely incredible
to hear the stories
of Sabina and Zoe
in their own ways
about how God has been
at work in their lives
and why they wanted
to take that step
of baptism,
to tell the world
that they follow Jesus.
It was great, wasn't it?
We had a little three-year-old
this week
when we bathed her.
She was asking
if we were baptizing her.
It was funny.
She was clearly watching.
But wasn't it brilliant
to be reminded
just how good our God is?
But I wonder
if you felt that
in your own heart
and in your soul.
Because see if
Sabina had got up
and said,
guys,
I just really want you
to know that I've joined the gym.
Okay?
And then Zoe
had come up after that
and said,
guys,
I just really want you
to know that I've joined
the book club
and I love it.
Friends,
I would not have been
moved to tears over that.
I just wouldn't.
I mean,
I love reading.
I love the gym.
But I just would not
have been moved to tears
on that.
But see,
even the two of them
stood up and said,
Jesus Christ
is everything in my life.
I once was dead.
He's made me alive.
I once was going to hell
because of my sin.
He's given me heaven.
When they told us that,
friends,
my soul was filled
with thankfulness.
That's what Paul's saying here.
When I hear about how God
has been at work in your lives,
my heart is just filled
with thankfulness.
And do you see the evidences
of God's grace
that Paul hears
in their lives?
Do you see them
in those opening verses there?
The three of them?
Faith,
love,
and hope.
Faith,
love,
and hope.
The distinct marks
of the Christian community.
Faith,
their faith in Jesus Christ,
their devotion to him,
their love for him,
their trust in him,
their service of him,
and their love
for who?
Do you notice it?
Verse 3,
all of God's people.
So they love those
in their church family,
but do you see
how it doesn't just stop there?
How they love
all the Christians
who they come in contact with
throughout the world,
their neighbors
living in the different cities
round about them?
Here is a love
that is not determined
by age,
or interest,
or gender,
or nationality,
or race,
but here is a love
that is the natural overflow
of our oneness
in Jesus Christ.
And it is a wonderful thing.
And if you've ever had
that experience
when you meet Christians
who you've never met before
and instantly you have
that love and connection
with them.
Remember when Alex and I
went to Malawi,
first went to church there,
that wonderful feeling
of being somewhere
completely different,
having a different skin color
to many people,
speaking a different language
to many people,
wearing different clothes,
but walking into that church
and being lovingly greeted
by brothers and sisters
in Christ
who we instantly
had the biggest thing
in common with
in our lives.
It's an incredible feeling,
isn't it?
This is the love
that Paul is talking about here.
The genuine concern,
the genuine appreciation,
the genuine love
for brothers and sisters
around the world.
It's why it's such a privilege,
is it not,
to pray for brothers and sisters
around the world
who we've never met.
And our love for one another
and overflow
of our oneness in Christ,
friends,
it's one of the best apologetics
that we can offer
to a fractured
and to a divided
and a confused
watching world.
As they look in
and they see this
and they think,
how on earth
does that happen?
Our government
is spending millions
of pounds every year
trying to make it happen
and yet here it is.
Our love for one another,
our love for God's people,
friends,
it's such a beautiful thing.
So let me ask you,
just while we're there,
let me ask you,
are you making every effort
in your life
to love your brothers
and sisters in Christ?
Are you really making
every effort?
What opportunities
are ahead of you this week
where you could demonstrate that?
Who could you text?
Who could you hug?
Okay, we're Scottish
but we do like hugging, okay?
Who can you pray for?
Who can you visit?
Who can you welcome?
Who can you visibly
show love to?
You know,
I find it one of the most
amazing things here
when I hear people come,
visitors who've never been
and they say to me
at the door on the way out
that we just felt
so welcomed here.
It's wonderful to hear that.
This is a faith
and a love to see
in the text
that springs from the hope
that is stored up
for them in heaven.
Love that phrase,
stored up.
It's a word
that is used to,
the countries are,
in our minds,
is it something
that is securely
fixed and placed,
i.e.
nobody is going to
take this from you.
Nobody can rob you
of this.
This is kind of
Fort Knox
type security.
What assurance
about the future.
is it not wonderful
to think as we celebrate
a dear sister
who's going to be
with the Lord
that this was true for her?
That we are not
a people who are
marked by no hope.
We are a people
marked by hope.
And this truth
is that yes,
while we know
life with God now,
our best life
is yet to come.
And our present experience
is but a foretaste
of the blessings
that will be ours
because of Christ
one day in heaven.
Friends,
we are a community
that should be marked
by hope.
Jonathan Edwards,
to go to heaven
fully and to enjoy God
is infinitely better
than the most pleasant
accommodations here.
These are the marks
of this Christian community
that helps Paul see
that God has really
been at work
in their lives
because this is a community
that's been marked
by faith,
that is marked by faith,
by love,
and by hope.
And so the natural question
that comes to us
this morning
as we see this
is to think about
whether we are a community
who are marked
by faith,
by love,
and by hope.
I wonder whether
these false teachers,
whether they were looking
down on these believers
because of the simplicity
and the unimpressiveness
of their lives
following Jesus.
I wonder whether
these Colossians
are thinking to themselves,
maybe we're not
the real deal.
Maybe there is
more to know
and experience
beyond Jesus.
Paul says,
nope.
Here is the fruit
that shows me
that you
are the real deal.
And the second thing
he wants them to know
really quickly
is that this message
is a big deal.
What is it?
It's a true message.
Do you see it in the text?
Presumably to differentiate
it from the false one
that they are hearing
from these teachers.
The message
of God's outrageous grace,
the great love
that he has shown
us in sending
his son
who paid
our debt
of sin
on the cross,
reconciled us
to our maker,
and to prove
that it is
the real deal
and a big deal
message,
I want you
to know,
says Paul,
this word,
this message
has not just
impacted your postcode.
Do you see?
It is impacting
the whole world.
Verse 6.
In the same way
the gospel
is bearing fruit
and growing
throughout the whole world.
This letter
probably written
somewhere like
30 years roughly
after Jesus
had ascended
and here it is
impacting
the world
and it's still
happening today.
I don't know about you
but so often
what I do
is I take
how I perceive
things
as I see them here
which is relatively
slow growth
and I project
that onto the world
and I kid myself
thinking that
what's happening here
is happening
all over the world.
Friends,
that is just
not true.
I looked it up
an Operation World
website this week
which gives you
statistics
about the worldwide church.
Let me just give you
three to encourage you
this morning
that this is true.
In Sudan,
one of the hardest places
to be a Christian,
the church has increased
tenfold over the last
40 years.
Tenfold.
In 1949 in China
it's estimated
that there were
1.2 million Christians
and today
even under such
severe persecution
it's estimated
that there are
over 100 million Christians
and even that figure
is probably too low
because we don't know
much about the
underground church.
And here's my favourite
okay,
in 1989
on Mongolia
if you know where
that is on the map
of Mongolia
do you know how many
Christians there were?
1989
four.
Yeah?
Four Christians
today
over 20,000
and you hear reports
of people
who have spent
time with them
and who have come back
and they will tell you
that these Christians
in Mongolia
are some of the most
humble
and some of the most
evangelistically hungry
Christians that you're
likely to ever meet.
And if you think about
where Mongolia is
on the map
with Russia to the north
and China to the south
you can praise God
how he is strategically
at work all over the world.
It's a thrill of hearts
how God is at work.
In the same way
the gospel is bearing fruit
and growing
throughout the whole world.
And it's not just
a global thing
you see
just as it has been
doing among you
since the day
you heard it
and truly understood
God's grace.
So the gospel
has been impacting
and is impacted
and is impacting
this little city
of Colossae.
And think about
how it started
through this man
called
Epaphras.
This is how God
works through the
ordinary
unspectacular
lives of faithful
and daring people
who are willing
to speak about
Jesus.
Should make a difference
doesn't it?
Those conversations
we have in the office
about Jesus
are not insignificant.
The conversations
we have with our family
the way that we pray
for them and love them
that is not insignificant.
Here is God moving
in the ordinary means.
Love it.
What does it say?
These believers
learned it from Epaphras.
That word learned
in the original
is suggestive
of more than
he just spoke words
to them.
Epaphras taught them
and he helped them
see how the gospel
should impact
every area
of their lives
and he showed them
how this message
should change them
as he lived
his life
alongside them.
Is that not a
wonderful example
of what it means
to be a disciple
who makes disciples
of Jesus Christ?
Sharing word and heart
with people
passing on gospel
and life
modeling to others
what it looks like
to worship Jesus
with our whole
lives.
you know Alex
and I often
ask ourselves
that question
in relation to
the girls
we think to ourselves
what are they
learning from us?
What are they
hearing from us?
What are they
seeing in us?
Because that's the
truth of it isn't it?
As we
grow up in this
world
as they grow up
in this world
either that we'll
be discipling them
or the world
will be discipling
them.
And the best thing
that we can give
them
is not a good
school
it's not to
settle them
into a good
neighborhood
but rather
it's to do
everything that
we can
to live out
in front of
them
a living
and an
active
and a joyful
relationship
with Jesus
Christ
to admit
our failures
to say sorry
when we got it
wrong
to demonstrate
that we live
by grace
and seeking
to introduce
them to this
good God
who has saved
us
that is the
best thing
that we can
give people
here's what I
want to challenge
us with today
friends
who are you
modeling this
to?
Who is
learning the
Christian life
from you?
who is watching
you?
Who could you
get alongside?
Who could you
ask to get
alongside you?
We pray for
opportunities to
share Jesus
with others
see these
Colossian
Christians
they learned
it from
Epaphras
and Paul
wants them
to know
that he
is a dear
fellow servant
and a
faithful minister
here is a
man full of
faith
of love
and of hope
and Paul is
writing here to
say listen
you can trust
this guy
and you
can trust
his message
and Epaphras
he is working
he is
this is one of
my heroes
of the New
Testament
this man
Epaphras
cannot wait
to meet him
in glory
Epaphras is
working so hard
for them
because he
loves them
so much
he's serving
them
he's making
himself nothing
for the sake
of these
Christians
because he
knows that
the gospel
is a big
deal
the song
that we
sometimes
sing here
Jesus
is Lord
whose voice
sustains
the stars
and planets
yet in his
wisdom laid
aside his
crown
Jesus
the man
who washed
our feet
who bore
our suffering
became a
curse to
bring salvation's
plan
friends as we
close this
morning let me
ask you how
big is your
view of Jesus
have it in your
mind as we
journey through
this series
together is he
the Sunday
school Jesus
is he the
lucky charm
Jesus
is he a
role model
Jesus
is he a
999
Jesus
or
will we
make it our
prayer
that God
through his
word would
help us see
that we have
a big
Jesus
you know
Charlie Duke
was an
astronaut who
flew on
board
Apollo 16
and after his
time in space
after a little
while he
became a
Christian
and somebody
asked him
about the
overview
effect
and he
said now
that I'm a
believer
in my
mind I
can see
that sight
and proclaim
as the
psalmist
did that
the heavens
declare the
glory of
God and
the sky
proclaims the
work of his
hands
Psalm 19
friends how
big is your
view of
Jesus
because
Colossians
presents us
with a big
Jesus and
he's a
Jesus who
is so much
bigger than
we think
he is
why don't
we pray
maybe just
as we
before we
move on
this morning
let's just
pause
and let's
just take
time to
consider
what we've
heard and
sung and
read this
morning and
ask that God
would be at
work in our
hearts
thanks for
we've
made it
to